Books Bring People Together
by Alpaca Farm
Summary: Harry meets his mother's friend's son in an attempt to get away from his barbaric brothers and father. If anyone had ever said books don't bring people together they were a dirty liar. Neville/Harry.SLASH Fluffy fic!Rated M for a later reason.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: This is a story I was going to start a while ago, but since I have no internet right now (I'm moving so I have to wait until the first of August for the cable people to set it up in our new house) I decided to start. I am suffering from a mixture of writers block and procrastination. I have a lot of summer work to do, but I cant work on my Stem Cell position paper right now, because I have no internet and I only have one article on it saved. D: So I think getting some fanfic done will help. **_

_**Now that that is over I shall get on with the fanfic stuff. **_

_**Disclaimer: I do not claim to have owned or created the Harry Potter universe or anything else related to it. All I claim is my overactive imaginations and the beginnings of a headache. I have no money so if anyone sues me they will get nothing out of it. **_

_**Summary: Harry meets his mother's friend's son in an attempt to get away from his barbaric brothers and father. If anyone had ever said books don't bring people together they were a dirty liar. Neville/Harry.**_

_**Warnings: Slash ( A relationship between two males usually written by fans of a certain series or in an original story ), language, some of the characters may be OOC (Harry and Neville may be), this story shall be AU. If any of these bother you, do not read this at all. I am not asking you to read it if you don't like it so don't if you don't want to thanks.**_

_**In this universe Tom Riddle Jr. did not go crazy for power, he started his own business empire and let go of his past, like a strong person would do. Dumbledore didn't just sit and watch him seep in his own sorrow in this universe. Which means there was no prophecy, Harry and Neville's parents never dies, and the wizarding world settled in a sort of peace. If you have an issue with this, you obviously have no life for taking a fanfiction so seriously.**_

_**Also they have cell phones and stuff D: I pushed the time sort of to the present. Oh well its already AU, so deal ^-^**_

To say Lily Potter was angry would be an understatement to rival all other understatements.

James, Logan, and Chris had been causing havoc in their modern suburban house all week. Lily needed a break.

Harry himself needed a break too. Fred and George Weasley had developed some new products for their shop and sent them to James immediately to test them. James had paid for them to start their own shop in Hogsmeade, only making them promise to continue their schooling. They were going to drop out of school and work towards their own shop, much to their mothers grief, but James stepped in and appeased them all. The twins sent them free products all the time and the pranksters never hesitated in using them.

Harry wasn't much of a prankster like his father and brothers were. Sure, he could pull of a great prank when he really wanted to get revenge, but he didn't spend his time plotting and pranking like the other Potter males did. That made him the prime target for the pranking. During one whole week a series of pranks were directed towards him, including one that turned every hair on his body platinum blond, making him look eerily similar to Draco Malfoy, which amused his family to no end. Harry had to admit that prank had made him laugh a bit too at first, but after three days of looking like his best friend he was irritated. It took almost ten minutes of yelling for them to turn him back right. He still thought there were a few hairs that were shinier than the others.

The tension at dinner on Friday afternoon was so thick, Harry felt like he was going to suffocate. The three pranksters seemed unaware that the two most temperamental people they knew were stewing away while they laughed and irritated their already frazzled nerves.

Logan and Chris ate with no manners at all. They threw food at one another, belched, talked with their mouths full, and stuffed as much food as they could into the bottomless holes they called stomachs. James, as a result of years of pureblood functions and balls hosted by his parents, ate like a human being but didn't reprimand the boys on their non-existent manners.

Harry felt his appetite wane as Logan let out a particularly disgusting sounding belch and sat his fork down. He glanced at his mother who had also stopped eating. She looked ready to burst and Harry was sure he probably looked that way too. Was it too much to ask for a simple, clean dinnertime conversation.

"Logan! I taught you boys better than this. You know how to eat like a human being, why are you eating like an agitated threstral." Lily spoke calmly, which was the warning signs that she was irritated beyond the point of yelling.

James smiled, completely oblivious to the anger of his wife. "Oh Lily, they are just young boys."

"Really, because Harry here is a young boy and he seems capable of eating with manners more developed than a four year old."

Harry hated when he was used as an example. He was the second oldest out of four boys. His older brother, Justin was twenty-three and in the middle of intense auror training. Harry himself was sixteen, Logan was 14 and Chris was 12. Now that Justin was out of the house, he was used as the example for the younger two to look up to, which didn't really work since they held no real respect for him. Yes, they loved him like brothers should, but he didn't have that older brother quality to him that Justin did.

Logan and Chris both were taller than him, which made no sense at all. Lily said that Harry was just developing slower, like his father did when he was his age. She had shown him some pictures of her towering over him. The Evans men came tall apparently and so did the girls, but Harry seemed to be the only one that skipped the height trait. Harry was also slender, while his brothers were more bulky. Logan played as a chaser on the Gryffindor quidditch team and Chris was a reserve beater. Harry didn't play quidditch. He loved to fly, but the game felt a bit tedious to him. His father had said he could have been an amazing seeker, probably the best they had seen in years, but Harry just wasn't into it. He was fast on a broom, but also fast on his feet. He loved to run.

Harry was everything his brothers weren't, which led him back to the current dinner situation.

"Honey, you know Harry is older. He's been to more balls and important parties than these two. They'll learn. Let them be," James sighed.

"They are teenagers now. This is the time we need to be molding them into young men. You never let Justin or Harry do things like this! Justin was a proper gentleman by the time he was Chris's age. Are you getting soft on me James?," Lily questioned. The question seemed to have a teasing edge.

James sighed and rubbed the side of his face. "They are home, Lils. Its their summer vacation, let it be the last they have as kids and then we can focus on making them 'proper gentlemen' next summer."

Lily relaxed. "Fine, but they better not be showing off this lack of manners when the school term starts. I have never seen them eat this bad until now! And you two, stop throwing your food now. I don't make food for you to throw it." Lily got up from the table and went into the kitchen to clean her plate.

Logan and Chris, who had been throwing bits of their dinner rolls at each other stopped quickly and went back to inhaling their food. Chris kicked Harry under the dinner table, trying to engage a kicking war. Harry rolled his eyes. Whenever he got engaged in one of those he ended up losing and having bruises on his shins in the morning. He shook his head and looked to the door that lead from their dining room to the kitchen longingly. From the sound of his mothers voice he presumed she was on the phone.

Harry picked up his fork and went back to picking at his food. His appetite hadn't returned, which was a shame since his mother had went all out with the shrimp fettuccini covered in a garlic butter sauce. He loved that particular dish.

'Well, I can always eat it later' Harry's inner mind spoke. He nodded to himself.

He put his fork back down and looked at his father, while he explained what was happening in his latest case. There were some people selling poisonous potions to muggles as narcotics. They had a secret set up at a club in London, but James and his partner wouldn't be able to get into where they had to so they could bust them.

Harry suggested that they use polyjuice potions to change their appearances and get into the club using the names of the muggleborns who had told them about the whole operation. The problem was how to stop it after they got in. Apparently there were four wizards running it. Two of them made the potions and the other two sold them. Harry suggested that they confound the muggles letting them into the club and after they really get in they signal to back up using one of the portkeys that weren't fully activated. The other aurors could apparate in since wizards had to be really powerful, like Dumbledore powerful, to set up wards the fully prohibited apparation.

James cursed and ran into the living room to firecall his partner. Logan and Chris had cleaned their plates and were arguing over quidditch strategies and Harry took that as a sign that dinner was officially over.

He took his plate into the kitchen and glanced over to his mother who was still on the phone, the cord from the wall mounted phone was tangled around her thin body. Harry put his plate on the granite counter and rummaged in a cupboard for some clear, clingy wrapping stuff that would keep his food fresh until he felt like eating it.

After he found the cling wrap, he changed his mind putting it back and looking for the clear containers in another cupboard. He found a medium sized one and a lid that looked like it would fit and then he scraped his past into the container. He placed it in the refrigerator and rinsed his plate before placing it in the sink on top of his mothers. After that he leaned on the counter next to the stove and stared at his mother waiting for her to get off of the phone.

"Are you sure you're fine with this? I mean I know you can handle having so many guests, but our meetings are…not normal," Lily said into the phone.

After some nodding and uh-huhs Lily spoke again. "Okay. I'll be there in thirty minutes, bye."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Book club meeting.," was all Lily said before she went back to put away the left over food.

"Oh yeah, you're reading that one book about the girl who finds out she was a pixie changeling and falls in love with that one faerie guy, right?"

"How do you know about that book? Its for teenage girls."

"If a group of grown women seeking to get away from their lives in constant suburbia can read it so can I.," Harry sniffed and put his nose up snootily like he had seen Draco do.

"Son of mine, what am I going to do with you?," Lily faked exasperation.

"Buy me a pony?"

"An evil pony named Bubo?"

"Yes!," Harry grinned.

Lily playfully cuffed Harry on the arm and sighed. Harry beamed. He and his mother were best friends. They shared the same sense of humor and a lot of how he acted came from her, which contrasted with his brothers since they acted like his father. He loved his father very much, but he was always much closer to Lily.

"Can I come with you to the meeting?"

It was Lily's turn to lift an eyebrow.

"You, Harry James Potter want to come to what I recall you calling a 'middle aged girls night out'?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I might as well go. I would rather sit through gossip and little finger foods than be here and suffer through whatever prank dad may be planning."

Lily's face lit up in a mischievous grin and Harry groaned.

"Of course if you say no, I could just tell you how the whole thing ends.," Harry murmured.

The grin wiped off of his mothers face and her eyes narrowed. "Fine, but if you are going to come, go get cleaned up and maybe change a bit. You are going to meet my friend Alice Longbottom. She's been in America ever since you were around five and I don't want her to see my son in jeans covered in shoe marks."

Harry looked down at his jeans and groaned.

Harry indeed had shoe marks all over his jeans and changed into another pair.

Unfortunately, the new pair were black, fancy looking jeans his mom bought him and looked strange with his old, white t-shirt (that may or may not have yellowed with age), so he changed into a silvery shirt. He had to make sure he didn't rush and miss a button. The shirt was a gift from his friend Hermione. It fit his shape nicely, not making him look like a rat drowning in a t-shirt twice his size. It wasn't formal, but it made him look like he cared about how he looked. Which he tried to convince himself he didn't.

The book club meetings were every other Friday during the summer. They were supposed to be very casual meetings, but every woman wanted to out-do herself, whether she was hosting or a guest. Lily disliked any of her children looking like they needed help dressing themselves and Harry wanted to make sure he impressed his mothers finicky friends.

He went into the bathroom across the hall from his room and washed his face. He brushed his teeth and tried to tame his hair. He had grown it so that it almost reached his shoulders again. It was easier to tame it when it was longer than when it was short.

When he was done it was still very wild, but some would pass it off as being styled to look that way. He got his hair from his father, which was another thing that set him apart from his brothers. He got his hair, short height, and eyesight from his father, but that was it. His father was built like his other sons, but Harry was lean like his mother and had slightly delicate features, that made it hard for him to make manly faces at his brothers. The combination of being short, slender, and having the slightest of feminine features made his brothers constantly tease him. Luckily, he also got his fiery, stubborn spirit from his mother and he could fight. So when his brothers tried to wrestle him they were evenly matched.

He took his glasses off and contemplated wearing contacts. He decided not to, he was still a little grossed out by the idea of touching his eye and since he wasn't old enough to get his eyes magically corrected he had to live with the glasses. He didn't mind them though, he felt like the glasses were a part of him that made him Harry.

He stepped over the threshold of the bathroom door only to have to stop as two red-hair blurs sped by. He rolled his eyes, but smiled fondly at the reminder that he had once been as childish and energetic as his brothers. Heck, he still was, just a little more matured though.

He went back to his room and grabbed his cell phone and almost ran down the stairs before he realized he hadn't put on any shoes. It may have been hot during the day, but the nights could get chilly. He went through his shoes, wondering if boots or trainers would match his outfit. If it didn't match his outfit his mother would make him change them. And plus if he didn't look good, people wouldn't think he could dress himself.

'I'm starting to sound like Draco.' Harry shook his head to himself and chose some white shoes that had no shoestrings but stayed on his feet fine enough. He didn't put on any socks, but it was okay since his jeans were long and tight enough to hide his ankles.

He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror one more time before going back stairs. He looked presentable. He didn't want to have to change and make his mother late. He walked down the stairs while simultaneously checking the time on his cell. It was almost six. It would still be light outside, but it would get dark soon.

His mother always pushed for them to stay current with both muggle and magical news and technology. She bought Harry and cell phone once she deemed him responsible enough to handle one and there was a computer in the 'study that really isn't a study because no one really studies in this room'. There was a television in the living room and often times Logan and Chris would fight over what sports games they should watch. Lily thought that it was the wizarding worlds biggest mistake to completely cut themselves off from the muggle world. Harry agreed with her. Witches and Wizards may be able to do things that muggles couldn't because of their magic, but muggles made up for that by using their brains. Plus, Harry thought the wizarding world was in the need of a revolution. They still used candle-light for crying out loud.

James was seated on the couch facing the television, his head thrown back while he snored. Harry chuckled and sat in one of the chairs that faced the fireplace. He knew not to change the television channel. He could yell, scream, jump on the couch next to his father, but he wouldn't wake up unless his mother called him or someone changed the channel.

Lily came down the stairs not five minutes letter, in a frilly blouse and sort of dressy pants. Harry got up out of the squishy chair, leaning over to pat his father on the head before going over to his mother. She handed him the keys to her car and he looked at her surprised.

The car ride to the Longbottoms was short, but long enough for the two of them to hold a decent conversation.

"I think we should spend more time together, Lils," Harry spoke to his mother using her first name. He felt uncomfortable calling her mom and she seemed to like him being comfortable with using her name.

"What do you mean? We spend lots of time together." It was true. Lily taught at Hogwarts as the History of Magic teacher. During the summer she and Harry had to work together to keep themselves from being the victims of pranks for weeks.

"I know, but we need some time with just the two of us. Like how dad always takes us boys to go flying or something, like one on one time. We don't really get to do that with you. Though I understand that my brothers mostly focus on sports and games and stuff and think that what you do is to girly for them." Harry bit his lip.

Lily felt her eyes burn and fought back the tears that threatened to show up. The was the closest to a confession Harry would ever give her. She wasn't spending enough time with her babies. Harry was more like her than James. James was a guy who liked to fly and do sporty, manly things. Harry wasn't like that at all. He was the sort of guy who liked to curl up on a couch and read or do something with his hands. Harry liked to cook things. James couldn't make ice.

"Maybe tomorrow we could ditch the rest of the family and go to a café for breakfast and then you can help me cook for dinner when my sister comes over."

Harry grinned though his grin faltered a little when she brought up her sister.

"Do they have to come over?," Harry whined. He didn't like his Aunt Petunia her husband and son. She always had a pinched look on her face when she came over and she hated his father. Her husband, Vernon was always red-faced and snapped at him whenever he spoke saying that 'children must only speak when spoken to', yet his whale of a son Dudley would always complain about how hungry he was an eat all of the snacks in the house and hog the television, when he wasn't trying to beat up Harry. Justin was usually there to keep him in line but from the last time Harry heard he was still training.

"You know they do, Harry. I love my sister and she loves me back. I'm trying to get our relationship back to the way it was before I got my letter to Hogwarts. She seems normal sometimes, but I can see she still hates the fact that I had to leave her. Cant you just bear her family for a night?," Lily employed her puppy dog eyes to full force.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Fine, but if Dudley tries to corner me again something is gonna go down."

Lily smiled. "You can protect yourself from him. He's mostly fat, though I wish Petunia would put him on a diet better than the one now," she sighed. " He's gonna eat himself into a coma one day"

Harry nodded. He didn't like him, but he was worried about Dudley's weight too. Vernon was large himself, but Dudley was already way past obesity.

"Maybe we shouldn't make a very heavy dinner. Something that is good, but healthy enough to teach Dudley that he doesn't need three cheeseburgers and a steak to feel full." Harry wasn't kidding about the cheeseburgers and steak. He had went over for dinner with the Dursleys and witness the consumption of Dudley's alternative meal.

"I'll leave it to you to plan it all."

Harry was going to say something else but they arrived at the Longbottom's house.

It was a nice house. Not a grand manor like Draco's, but big enough to be around the size of their own. There were no other cars accept for one in the driveway and Lily's truck, which she was parking near the curb. Harry rolled his eyes. Of course they had to be the first ones there.

The inside of the house was warm and cozy. Alice Longbottom directed them to a living room. There were two soft, tan couches and a couple darker brown armchairs and loveseats and a coffee table with a platter of brownies placed on it. The two women hugged each other and Lily introduced Harry to Alice. She hugged him too, reminding him of when he had met the Weasleys.

Harry wasn't sure he wanted to be there when the rest of the women arrived. His mother and her friend had already settled into a couch and were catching up with each other. He started to regret coming. He wanted to get away from his brothers and father for at least one day, but he forgot to think about being stuck in a room with gossiping middle-aged women conversing over a book that could be found in a section for teenage girls in the book store. It was a good book. Nothing like the books that were so popular with muggle girls these days. Not that he would ever admit to reading more than one book for teenage girls.

Mrs. Longbottom motion for him to take a brownie, but he declined politely. He didn't really like brownies, even though he made them all the time. Alice Longbottom saw Harry looking around awkwardly and she came up with a brilliant idea.

"Harry. Would you like to meet my son? He's up in his room, because apparently he doesn't want to be in a room with his mom and her friends all night and I didn't know another young man would be here. You can go up and do whatever young men do to amuse themselves while their mothers chat if you want. I'm sure he won't mind."

Harry shrugged. It was a better option that staying down here and from what he heard Neville, as he had heard his mother call him over the phone, didn't want to be a part of a group of frustrated wives anyways.

"His room is up the stairs, the second room to the left. He's not good with meeting new people so go easy on him."

Neville was sitting in his room, listening to some music and browsing the web on the laptop he had earned the money for. His mother encouraged for him to know about the current muggle technologies just in case he wanted to live in the muggle world when he graduated.

He had been surprised when his mother announced that she would be hosting a book club meeting. They had only been settled into the house for a few weeks and she was already hosting parties, but he wasn't surprised. His father wasn't allowed to stay in the house while the women were there, but it was fine because he was off at a conference in France anyways.

Neville himself was unable to go off somewhere for the duration of the meeting and had prepared himself to spend the night in his room alone, occasionally sneaking a snack from down the stairs, until he fell asleep or the guests left.

He didn't expect for someone to come knocking on his bedroom door. He got off of his bed and opened the door expecting to see his mother ready to introduce him to some of her friends, but instead he saw possibly the most attractive boy he had ever seen. Well, not the most attractive, but the most attractive boy he had ever seen who probably got it all by good ol' genes. Inquisitive green eyes stared at him and it took him a moment to realize that his lips were moving. He noted that they were red and unusually plump for a guys lips.

"Hello, my name is Harry Potter. I came to this book club meeting with my mom and your mom said that maybe the two of us could hang out while they gossip. Well she didn't exactly say they were going to gossip, but you know what I mean," Harry rambled and then stuck his hand out so they could shake hands.

Neville took the tanned hand into his hand and shook it and introduced himself, trying to figure out if his hand was really as clammy as he thought. He motioned for Harry to enter his room and hesitated for a moment before closing the door. Being in a closed room with an unfamiliar person was better than hearing two middle aged women squeal over something girls squeal over. He never really understood females.

Harry sat in the only chair in Neville's room, the desk chair, which meant that Neville was back to sitting on his bed, only he wasn't sprawled out on it like he was a moment.

He took a moment to observe Harry while said boy was checking out his room. He shorter than Neville which was quite obvious. Neville was around 6 feet tall and he estimated Harry to be around 5'6 or 5'7. Harry was thinner than Neville's own bulky frame. He had gotten past chubby phase he was in, but a little baby fat was still on his body, but it wasn't as noticeable. His father said that it would probably be gone by the next summer, after a year of hard work.

Harry had black hair, darker than any other black hair Neville had ever seen. His own hair was dark brown and shorter than Harry's. Then, his attention was set on the big green eyes that looked around his room. They were a shade of green that reminded him of the leaves of many different plants. They made him think of a simpler time when he could just roll in the grass and leaves all day until his mother called him in and scolded him for getting stains all over his play clothes.

He wanted to stare at those eyes all day. He quickly turned his head so he wouldn't be caught staring like someone creepy.

Harry looked around at Neville's room approvingly. The bed that was in the middle of the room had a dark brown headboard and a blue comforter. There was a bedside table with an alarm clock and a few pennies scattered around on it and there was the large desk where was seated. He didn't know what kind of wood it was, but it matched the headboard of Neville's bed and it was smooth and cold when he put a hand on it. There were a few papers and books scattered on the desk, but he paid no attention to them.

He could feel eyes on him and he knew Neville was looking at him but he didn't turn from wear he was observing the room. The walls were painted white, the real white and not the weird eggshell color that some people had in their houses. They made the room feel empty and undecorated and Harry wondered if he would put anything up on them, before he noticed a pile of posters collecting in a corner near the door.

He sneaked a peek over at Neville. He wasn't looking at him anymore. Neville had dark brown hair, average brown eyes, and an unremarkable face. He was tall and stocky and made Harry ponder why every guy his age seemed to tower over him. Neville looked like someone who could get lost in a crowd.

For some reason Harry didn't want to look away. He liked the shy look Neville had on his face as he fiddled with the comforter on his bed.

"So. What school are you going to?," Harry asked.

"Hogwarts. My mom home-schooled me while we were in America and now that we are back here she says I can go this year and next year."

"Why didn't you go to Hogwarts at first, or one of the schools over in America I've heard about."

"When I was eight my father got a really good job over there and my mother didn't want me across the ocean while they lived there. She also didn't want to be so far away from dad, so she decided she would home-school me with a few tutors. Also she says the wizarding schools in America have a reputation of being…odd.." He explained. Harry could see that Neville was getting less tense as he spoke. Harry remembered his mother mentioning that he wasn't used to meeting new people.

"What's home schooling like?" Harry really was curious.

"Well, the professor comes to your house and you go through a days worth of schoolwork in your own kitchen. My mother says she could have done it herself, but she's not qualified to teach things like potions and transfiguration. She told me its better than going to school with a whole bunch of other students, because instead of having to answer to a whole bunch of students the professor only has one student. She says that we get through more material."

"Personally I don't like my professor very much. He's grouchy and always seems like he'd rather be napping on our couch instead of teaching me. He knows what he's doing though and my mother says its hard to find a witch or wizard willing to teach every subject in one day, so I dealt with him all those years. What school are you going to?"

"I got to Hogwarts. I'm sure you've already heard lots about it, but do you want to know what its like from a person currently attending the school?," Harry inquired.

"Yes! The only things I hear about Hogwarts are stories about when my parents were in school." Harry loved the way Neville's face lit up so easily at the prospect of learning something about the school he would be going to.

"Well, there are three houses though I'm sure someone has already told you that. it's the first thing anyone ever tells you about Hogwarts. The three houses are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. I'm in Slytherin, which came as a shock to my father, but Lily said she saw it coming anyways. Slytherin is the least favorite house in the school, but mostly because Salazar Slytherin, the founder, believed in the whole 'pureblood superiority' crap. Nowadays, most students don't really believe that, but the other houses cant seem to get over it. Anyways, Gryffindor is for the brave, Ravenclaw for the intellectually gifted, Hufflepuff for the loyal, and Slytherin for the cunning."

Harry paused. "Well that's how the adults make it seem like. In my opinion Gryffindor is for the people who think being brave is risking their skins without bothering to plan anything first, but when it really comes down to the consequences they use their good reputations to not have to pay for their actions. They usually grow up and become aurors and stuff, but by then they have learned not to jump head-first into every situation they run by. Ravenclaws aren't really genii like most people make them out to be. There are equally as smart students scattered around in all of the houses, but the Ravenclaws just tend to want to know more and more as they learn. Hufflepuffs are sort of seen as the soft and cuddly house, but they mostly just try and stay away from trouble. And when one of them is in trouble the rest of them stick by them, earning them the title as the loyal house. In Slytherin its sort of cut into half between the students that were sorted there because of their cunning and the ones that were sorted there just because their families would be _devastated_ if they weren't."

"Like my friend Draco. His family is like one of the oldest and probably the richest pureblood families ever, but he didn't get in just because of that. He's genuinely sly and behind his uppity act he's really smart and knows what he's doing. A lot of Slytherins don't have that. I swear the girls are getting dumber by the second, though I think that has to do with the lessons of how a _proper wife_ should act."

"No one ever really tries to make friends outside of their house, which I don't think was the founders' intentions. I have friends outside of my house, but no one else seems to want to get to know anyone else. The professors are….interesting. My mom's best friend, Professor Snape, is the Potions professor and the other students all hate him except for the Slytherins. I call him Uncle Sev whenever we aren't in public, but don't mention it to him. He has a reputation to protect. Lily is the History of Magic professor, which means the whole house is empty throughout the school year since my dad usually stays with my godfather while were gone. The only truly loony teacher is Trelawney. Lily hates her. I don't blame her though."

Neville raised an eyebrow.

"She teaches Divination, but she's a big phony. Uncle Sev said he was peeking inside the Headmaster's room while she was trying to convince him to give her a job. He said she went all dream-like and stated some fake prophecy that indirectly sort of mentioned me. It was like someone born the year I was born in July would have to face some Dark Lord guy and one had to kill the other to live or something like that. It could have been anyone, but Sev knew they were talking about me, cos she had some sort of grudge against the Potters. Dumbledore let her have the job, but when Sev told him she was a phony he said he already knew, but the term was about to start and she had no where to go. Sev could tell she was faking it, because he has seer blood in him and even though he didn't have the gift he could tell when someone didn't," Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well how does she act at school?," Neville looked interested.

"When I was in her class she predicted my death like at least five times each day. I quit the class the first year I took it even though the class was actually kind of interesting when she wasn't telling me I would die a horrible death." Harry felt his tongue tingle. He had never said so much to someone all at once. Usually it took a couple months for him to be comfortable enough to really be around a person. He couldn't seem to shut up around Neville. Maybe it was because Neville seemed just as quiet as he was.

"Ah, well I cant wait until the term starts. It sounds interesting. Well, more interesting than sitting in a room with a grumpy man staring at your television longingly."

Harry smiled. "Wait until you see the castle! The first time you see it is amazing. Though, I don't know how you'll be getting to the castle. The first years take a boat ride, but you're obviously not going to be a first year. I hope you can ride in the carriages with us, because I don't think you would want to be around a bunch of jittery first years."

After they were done talking about school, Neville asked Harry if he wanted to play a computer game. Harry had played plenty of computer games, but he had never played this one before. It was a game where you could make your own people and control their lives. It was interesting actually. You could do anything you wanted and make them look like anyone you wanted. Harry was addicted even though he had only been playing for thirty minutes. Neville was on his stomach and Harry was sitting cross-legged on the bed next to him.

Occasionally laughter would come up from down the stairs. Harry rolled his eyes. "They must have brought the wine out."

"Wine?," Neville asked confused. His eyes were still planted firmly on the laptop screen, but Harry could tell he had his attention.

"You've never stayed for a book club meeting for frustrated wives before? I have once. After a while they bring out wine and start to sip on that until they get tipsy enough to bring out the real alcohol and get smashed. The one time I stayed behind and heard them giggle and talk loudly about some trashy novel they were reading. I ran out of the back of the house and hung out in the backyard until they flooed home. I think I'll have to drive home then." Harry tilted his head to the side for a moment, before chuckling.

Neville let the chuckle wash over him. It was like a giggle only manlier. Even that sounded outrageous in his own mind. It was nice and made Neville want to hear it again.

Harry poked Neville in the side and pointed at the screen. "You're house is on fire."

He looked at the screen. He was standing in front a fire in the kitchen, pointing and screaming. He groaned. He must have forgotten he was cooking something and it set on fire. He made his miniature self run out of the house where the others were waiting while the firefighters came and extinguished the fire. He was singed and the sight of that made Harry burst into laughter.

He smiled a little. His mini person looked a little ridiculous standing there with his hair standing straight up and only a pair of boxer briefs on. The image of himself in that state left him laughing along with Harry until his face was hot and he couldn't breathe.

Harry took one look at Neville and started to chuckle that odd chuckle again. "Your whole face is red!"

Neville groaned and buried his face into his comforter and let the chuckle wash over him again. It was like a trickle of water running down his spine. He resisted a shiver.

After a while the chuckling subsided and the only sound was Harry's clicking on the laptop. He felt Harry poke him in the side again. If that was kept up he would have a bruise in the morning. It didn't bother him.

He looked up. He was getting slapped by a girl he didn't know. Harry made mini-Neville poke her. "I love this game, I have to get it. It hilarious! I told this girl her mother was a llama."

After a while Harry got bored with the game. He still wanted it, but it had lost his attention for the moment. He looked around the room more while Neville played a particularly difficult game that Harry didn't feel like playing.

Harry had let himself go. He bounced on the bed lightly, which signaled his boredom and hummed to himself lightly. How long was this meeting going to last anyways. He was enjoying his time with Neville, but he was ready to go home and snuggle in bed with a few books. It never occurred to him to actually _bring _a book with him.

He sat looking around the room more. There were a few marks from where they must have hit the wall while moving Neville's furniture in. The boredom started to distract him from the wall and he looked down at Neville who was focusing on a particularly difficult part of his game. His side looked to poke worthy.

He poked him, wondering if all of the poking would make him yell at him like it did Draco. Neville just grunted, clicking away furiously.

Harry used whiney voice 4, the one Draco taught him. "I'm bored." He pouted.

Neville didn't look up. "Well what do you want to do."

Harry pouted more. "I don't know, think of something." He knew he sounded pathetic, but he also knew the power of the whining.

He saw Neville's head move to turn and put tried to make the face he often saw his mother use when she wanted his father to take her somewhere particularly girly that Padfoot and Moony would never let him get over.

He saw Neville give up any argument he wanted to start. The sight of Harry's bottom lip sticking out in the slightest way possible for a pout made him melt a little, much to his confusion. The mischievous sparkle in Harry's eyes told him that he had lost. A roar and scream from his laptop indicated the character in his game was killed and he sighed.

He turned the laptop off and got off of the bed to hook it onto its charger. "We could always go to my parents room and watch a movie. They have a huge TV in there," he looked down at his watch. "Its almost nine! Wow, time sure does go by fast when you're playing that game. It gets addictive, especially when you're up late and want to sleep, but you cant since you want to see what happens next. Hmmm..well none of the good movies will be on. We'll have to watch a DVD, but they are downstairs in the family room."

Harry shrugged. "You get the DVD's. Are your parents okay with food in your room?," Neville nodded. "I'll nick some food from where the drunken-ones are and then we'll meet up."

Neville nodded. He liked the way Harry made it seem like they were doing some sort of secret spy mission. It made it more interesting. "My parents bedroom is the one at the end of the hall.

Harry snuck down the stairs first, pretending he was in a ninja movie and he was the one of the main characters.

The stairs led into the foyer. One of the entryways led to a kitchen and dining room and the other one a living room. There was a little hall past the living room that led to what Harry thought must have been the family room and a bathroom. He didn't know where any food would be, so he sneaked over near the door where his mother and all her friends were giggling. It was odd seeing his mother with a glass of bourbon in her hand, giggling at something someone said. He was afraid of going in.

Suspenseful movie music played in his head as he sneaked in silently. Luck was on his side. The lights were low and soft music was coming from a radio in the corner. One of the couches faced the entrance and he rolled to get close to it so no one sitting on the other side would see him. He peeked his head around the couch slightly and saw the platters of food on the coffee table, and the couple of bottles of various alcoholic drinks and non-alcoholic drinks.

He knew he couldn't get anything from the table in the middle of them without being caught. They were drunk, but they weren't _that_ drunk. He looked around for anywhere else there could be food.

There was a small table that had a food platter on it and half a bottle of firewhiskey. The table was big enough to hide his body, but was all the way across the middle of the room next to the couch that Alice Longbottom and his mother sat. He needed a distraction. He wanted to get the firewhiskey, which he wouldn't be able to if he was caught. He may have been best friends with his mother, but she was his _mother._

He searched in his pockets for anything that would be a distraction, finding a tiny plush toy that would hooked to his house keys as an ornament. He took it off his key chain and took off the metal part. Marking up anything in the Longbottom's home was not his goal. It was heavy enough to make a satisfying noise on the wall, but not heavy enough to cause any damage.

He threw the toy at the wall, smiling when it made a noise loud enough to get the women to look in the opposite direction of where he needed to go. He quickly ran over to the table while the women were looking for a ghost or something.

He grabbed the firewhiskey and hid it behind him, before his mother looked over at him. "Oh look its Harry! Harry, there's a ghost over in the corner. See." She pointed over to the corner and Harry resisted rolling his eyes. He most definitely would have to be driving home. He thought about putting the firewhiskey back.

Mrs. Longbottom was a bit more sober. "You hungry Harry? She reached over to the coffee table and grabbed a platter of what looked like mini individual quiche and passed it to his crouching form. "I think that's enough for you and Nev."

Harry thanked her and walked out of the room backwards with the firewhiskey behind his back. The women were back to gossiping and exclaiming about a ghost that Alice had no idea about. They didn't notice him anymore; not even his mother was looking at him. He decided he didn't like his mother drunk.

He left the firewhiskey in the kitchen and grabbed two of the soda bottles sitting in a bucket of ice on the kitchen counter.

When he reached the last door in the upstairs hall he knocked on the door, unsure if it was the right room. Neville opened the door and motioned for him to enter with the hand holding two DVD cases.

The room was warm and inviting like the living room was and there was a door leading to what he presumed was the master bathroom. There was a nicely sized television, with a DVD player hooked up near it. Neville showed Harry the DVD's while he sat on the bed.

"I just picked up two I don't think I've seen before. Pick one."

Harry looked at each of them, not recognizing the titles at all, so he based them off of the covers. One of them had a cover with a girl and a guy holding hands at the beach. The other had a cover with two teenagers and a baby looking afraid. He scrunched his nose up at the one with the fluffy couple and pointed at the other one.

"It looks like a kids movie, but its better than another romance movie. I'm tired of them!," Harry rolled his eyes.

Neville snorted and got off of the bed to put the DVD in the DVD player. Harry looked warily at the bed. He didn't want to lay in it like it was his own parents bed, it would feel wrong to him. He didn't want to trespass.

When Neville came back and rested his body back onto the pillows, he looked over at Harry who was standing awkwardly next to the bed.

"Come on. My parents don't care unless you have your shoes on." Neville patted a spot on the bed beside him and Harry rolled his eyes."

"Fine." He slipped off his shoes and placed the platter in the middle of them.

The movie they watched was good, much to Harry's surprise. After that movie ended Neville put in the romance movie, which bored Harry to no end. Halfway through the movie he fell asleep, much to Neville's amusement.

Later that night Lily Potter and Alice Longbottom peeked their heads into the master bedroom and saw the two boys asleep, the smaller with his cheek pressed to Neville's shoulder.

They both exchanged knowing glances before Lily roused her son out of his sleep so they could drive home.

Of course, she wouldn't be driving drunk. She was smart enough to bring a sobering potion with her.

Unfortunately, the other women were too intoxicated for the potion to work.

_**A/N: Still no internet (though when you read this I most obviously will have internet) I might be going to stay with my dad for like a week so that may put this behind even more. I don't think I can go though. That summer work is due and I have even more to do and get turned in. **_

_**How will the dinner party go?**_

_**What will Harry serve?**_

_**Will Dudley be a big jerk face and provoke Harry into destroying him?**_

_**Will I ever be done with this moving nonsense?**_

_**Review? **_


	2. Yah

Hey! I know you guys are probably like "Where have you been miss lady?" Well I have the answer. School, school, school, and school. I've been so involved in school that many things, like fanfiction and a dating life, get pushed to the side. Along with that my writing style has completely changed and I have, for the moment, lost inspiration for these stories on this fanfiction account. My original fiction is suffering also. This does not mean I am quitting them. I just wont be updating any of them until I find the inspiration to spend my precious time completely re-writing them (one at a time) as I still like the ideas I was going with for these stories but I hate how I have written them so far. I have this new policy for myself to not post any fanfic until I have at least written half of it, so I have no excuse not to update for a while.

If you give me actual reviews with real substance, feedback, and needed critique, that will definitely boost my inspiration as I need ideas from multiple points of view. Even if I don't get many of these types of reviews I still will be planning to reconfigure all of these fics, but a little help will make it go faster.

I admit, this will take a while. I have constant projects, current events journals, tennis practice and club meetings to attend so I have very limited free time. However, if you do not completely hate me for leaving you all hanging for so long and have the patience to wait a while you shall be rewarded with some reading material.

I don't know if I may start restarting my incomplete multi-chaptered fics this week, next week, this month, next month or whatever. I'm really gonna plan out everything and carefully characterize and add more flow to my stories and that takes time along with writing them. I have also not decided which story to re-start first, but I may go in chronological order. So that means I may be restarting Fangs and Tears first (which is actually one of my favorite story ideas still). I will warn you when the stories will be changed, chapter by chapter and how the name may be changed. I do think however, I may do Someone to Love me first, since it is both my longest and most read fic and you guys have been so supportive I don't want to keep you waiting.

If you have bravely read through this mess, I shall enlighten you with some good news. Since my multi-chaptered stories will be taking a while to get in order, I probably will be uploading a bunch of one-shots. I may even upload two-shots or three chaptered stories.

I shall give a preview of my new style.

_Harry let the mysterious potion seep into his system and convulsed, almost re-emptying his stomach, but managed to keep it all in. A voice in his head that reminded him much of Hermione, reminded him that it was probably unwise to drink an unknown potion, considering the many things it could be. _

_For all he knew it could be a poison. _

_It probably was a poison considering where he was trapped. Somehow, he found himself unable to worry. He just needed something to swallow. Anything would do. Even if it caused his death at least he would die with something inside of him. _

_As much potion as there was for him to drink, he found himself unable to feel any less empty than before. The continuous pains in his abdomen enraged him and he threw the empty glass vial at the grimy, stone wall. _

_The glass shattered and a shard slashed a side of his cheek. He cursed profusely, but could not find the energy to care. _

_Harry crawled over to the corner that lacked a supply of broken glass and curled into a ball on the cold floor. He let the sleep that suddenly washed over him take over and his last thought before darkness took its hold was that when he woke he still would not be any less tired that he was before._


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